Editor’s Note: A lawsuit only tells part of a story.
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Two years after Kyler Efinger tragically died after walking into an airplane engine following a mental health episode at Salt Lake City International Airport.his family filed a lawsuit against the city.
On January 1, 2024, Kyler Efinger left the airport through an emergency door and entered the engine of a plane, where he later died of accidental injuries. According to the lawsuit, Efinger was experiencing an “obvious mental health episode” at the time.
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The lawsuit alleges that the design and management of the international airport allowed Kyler to pass through two emergency exit doors, onto the tarmac and walk nearly a mile to the de-icing area before police officers could locate him.
It further claims city staff failed to locate “a ticketed passenger known to be in distress and seen walking outside on the tarmac on a freezing night.” It claims staff directed police officers to incorrect locations, failed to communicate and “wasted valuable time just trying to understand each other”.
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that the pilots were not notified “in a timely manner” of a person in the vicinity of the plane. The lawsuit describes the pilot being cleared to approach the runway instead of being instructed to hold down. During that time, Kyler managed to crawl into the engine of the aircraft, where he was killed from blunt force injuries.
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After Kyler was discovered, police and emergency medical crews began life-saving effortsincluding CPR and administering naloxone, but Kyler died at the scene.
The suit states: “The idea that an airport was so dangerously designed and operated as to allow this sequence of events generated international attention and shock. Plaintiffs are bringing this suit to obtain reparations for their unfathomable loss and to prevent future tragedies.”
Efinger’s family is seeking $300,000 in addition to attorneys’ fees. The family is also requesting a jury trial.
Chronology of events according to the process
On January 1, 2024, at approximately 8:50 p.m., Kyler was at the airport scheduled to board a Delta flight to Denver, Colorado to visit his ailing grandfather.
Kyler was diagnosed with bipolar disorder around ten years ago and was known to experience episodes where he became “visibly disoriented”.
At approximately 9:00 p.m., Kyler began experiencing a manic episode and left his gate. According to the lawsuit, surveillance footage showed him walking up and down the moving lanes multiple times, often going against the flow.
“His behavior was objectively unusual for an adult,” the lawsuit states. “All of these symptomatic activities were observed or observable on the airport’s camera system and by any city employees or agents in the area. Kyler’s medical distress was sufficiently obvious and it was clear that he was in the midst of a mental health episode.”
Around 9:30 p.m., Kyler entered the Utah Jazz store in the A Concourse. The store manager reported that Kyler was acting so unusual that he accepted less than the full amount of the shirt Kyler wanted just to speed up the transaction. When Kyler left the store with the t-shirt, he had left his roller bag at the store.
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The store manager called Airport Operations, who then made two announcements for the owner of the bag to return to the store to retrieve it. Airport operations arrived to collect the bag.
As the store manager and an Airport Operations employee described, “Kyler ran down the terminal toward the Jazz store, this time with no shoes and his shirt half unbuttoned.”
Kyler then got into a verbal altercation with the manager about the money he paid him for the merchandise. Kyler accused the manager of “holding her purse hostage.” The manager called the airport’s emergency line as he left, leaving his bag again and running down the terminal.
Kyler ran to the end of the terminal, walked onto the railing of the moving walkway and tries to open the jet bridge door of a gate where a plane was docked. He was holding his shoes in his hands.
When he tried to open the door, a care staff member spoke to him briefly and the door was locked. Kyler tried to open another door, which was also locked, and fell in an exaggerated fashion. He kicked his shoe against the window, all in full view of the service staff.
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At around 21:54, he went through an emergency exit door near gate A4, which led from the terminal to the secure identification display area. The door did not have a delayed exit locking system, which requires someone to wait 15 to 30 seconds before unlocking.
He was able to immediately open the door and get out, probably still from the perspective of the member of staff on duty. He ran down the stairs and through another exit door, which also had no security system, and out onto the tarmac.
According to the lawsuit, nothing was set up to prevent “a visibly disoriented person from freely accessing the pavement” without being noticed.
Dispatchers knew and told police officers that Kyler was not wearing shoes when he stepped onto the pavement. Although city staff should have been notified of the exact time and location of Kyler’s exit, they did not know where he exited “or were unable to clearly communicate the information.”
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A police officer reportedly later told his colleagues that the initial search for Kyler was a “wild goose chase.” Copies of the audio communications showed dispatchers and officers expressing confusion about what others were saying.
Dispatchers initially told officers that Kyler exited a staircase near Gate A31, which was incorrect as he exited near Gate A4. Police quickly responded to the wrong location and searched the area for Kyler for several minutes before dispatchers told them he actually got out near Gate A22, which was also incorrect.
At 10:02 a.m., dispatchers gave officers the correct information and told them that Kyler had exited near Gate A4, 8 minutes after initially giving them the incorrect information.
Kyler walked to runway 34L and removed his pants and underwear, leaving him in just his t-shirt and socks. He left his clothes and shoes on the asphalt in sub-zero temperatures.
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At 10:04 p.m., a pilot reported seeing Kyler near Runway 34L, and at 10:07 p.m., Kyler reached the deicing area, about a mile from where he exited the terminal. He ran to a plane that had just started taxiing from the ice pad to the runway. Air traffic control had ordered the plane to start taxiing.
According to the lawsuit, that shows city staff failed to let air traffic controllers and pilots know that a disoriented person was outside on the tarmac near Runway 34L. The plane’s pilot later told police that he stopped the plane’s engines only after he saw Kyler.
Kyler climbed into the engine, where he suffered head trauma and died. The pilot stopped the plane and shut down the engine. A police officer and an airport staff member removed Kyler from the engine, but video footage shows another officer arrived earlier but did not exit the vehicle.
Kyler was handcuffed by the police officer and officers and later firefighters attempted to revive him. The lawsuit alleges that Kyler would still be alive if officers had found him 30 seconds earlier and that the first seven minutes of the city’s search for him were “completely ineffective.”
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